Great Reads and Inspiration

April 23, 2016

Articles, videos, ideas, photos, and artwork....the TASIS Visual Arts Faculty often share links and ideas with one another. We have decided to collect a few of our favorites so alumni and students can see what is inspiring the TASIS Visual Arts faculty these days! We plan to post 'Great Reads' at least twice a month.

Our hope is to challenge and inspire current and former TASIS Visual Arts Students. Let us know your thoughts and share your favorite links with us in the comments section.

Old Masters at the Top of Their Game
Portraits of men and women in the 80s and 90s, rich in the rewards of substantial and celebrated careers.

She Who Tells a Story (From Digital Photo Pro)
A glimpse of the lives of Arab women captured by the lenses of women photographers living in that world.

Truthtelling (From Digital Photo Pro)
An article about Barbara Davidson, Pulizter Prize winning photojournalist

Cutting and Layering Clay Slabs to Create Organic Texture (From April 2016 Ceramics Monthly)
Potter Jeremy Wallace shares how he makes a textured slab-built cylinder.

15 Iconic Buildings Celebrate the Monumental Modernism of Louis Kahn
Reflections on one of architecture’s most influential figures of the 20th century - Louis Kahn

Scanning the Covers of Fortune Magazine (From CreativePro)
Gene Gable did a column on the covers of Fortune magazine, especially those published before 1960 when the magazine was one of the most lavishly produced in the United States.

The Place of Craft (David duChemin, former Senior Humanities Speaker)
David states that we ".....suffer from a lack of visual literacy, imagination, and the willingness to connect emotionally – and vulnerably – with our subjects."

The Disease of Being Busy (OnBeing.org)
An article just as its title suggests - 'being too busy'.

Out of an Ivory Tower and into the World
An article about Swiss photographer Werner Bishof (Note: TASIS students and faculty visited a Bishof exhibition in Chiasso last year.)

Photo by Ely Ramos '18

Photo by Leyre Fernandez '18

Photo by Isa Mazon '18

Photo by Kirill Krupenin '17

Creating photographs that move

April 5, 2016

Advanced photography students worked today in class and created a series of animated gifs.

What exactly is a gif file? An animated GIF is an image encoded in graphics interchange format (GIF), which contains a number of images or frames in a single file and is described by its own graphic control extension. the frames are presented in a specific order to convey animation. (technopedia.com)

The techniques used to make these images were learned from a tutorial by Julianne Kost on the Lynda.com website. Photography students used Lynda.com to find answers to all their photography questions and new techniques.

Porcelain Workshop held at TASIS

March 18, 2016

IB Visual Arts students participated in a one day workshop in creating a table lamp from Paper-Porcelain with TASIS Art teacher and ceramics artist Simona Bellini. The workshop was a complete experience as students prepared the porcelain material and created the lamp forms from their own designs.

Despite the heavy snow on the day of the workshop, ten students plus Mr. Mark Aeschliman, working under the supervision of Ms. Bellini, created the paper-porcelain in the ceramics studio, mixing clean toilet paper in hot water to create a pulp mixture which was then added to a porcelain mix (1:3) and then blended together. The clay mixture was then stretched out and left to dry on plaster tablets and allowed to dry to a workable consistency.

After lunch, the students returned to the studio and began to work their paper-porcelain material, further rolling the clay to the proper thickness and then beginning to impress their design ideas into the soft material. The paper porcelain sheets retain a great strength after firing, but are thin enough that the light from a small lightbulb will pass through, creating a beautiful glow.

The students used various stamps – letters, designs, lace doilies, leaves – to press their design into the porcelain sheet. The sheet was then wrapped around the form which was to be the basis of the lamps’ shape. The base piece was joined to the form and the finished piece was left to dry, and then be fired. After the firing, the electrical lamp is added to complete the piece.

View a gallery of images from the workshop taken by TASIS Photography teacher, Frank Long. These images can also be viewed in the Porcelain workshop gallery on TASIS SmugMug.

Cultural Events - Museum Visits in Milan

March 16, 2016

“To suggest is to create; to describe is to destroy.” Robert Doisneau

“The mystery of love is more mysterious than the mystery of death.” Oscar Wilde

The photographer Robert Doisneau's and the poet and playwright Oscar Wilde's words adequately convey the attitude of the Symbolist painters of 1900. Between the Belle Epoque and World War I, groups of artists in several European countries took the suggestive themes of love, death, and mysterious mythology as their subjects for works of art. The Symbolism exhibition visited by 25 TASIS art history students at Palazzo Reale in Milan on Saturday featured 180 works of art, among which 150 paintings, many large-scale, and many by well know artists such as Hodler, Segantini, Redon, Moreau, and Böcklin. But there were also masterpieces by much less well known Italian painters such as Gaetano Previati, Giulio Aristide Sartorio, and Vittorio Emanuele Bressanin. One part of the exhibition was a recreation of the "Room of the Art of the Dream" from the 1907 Venice Biennale the 1907, which elevated Symbolism to the status of an important style in Italy.

We also visited Leonardo's Last Supper at Santa Maria delle Grazie. Students preparing for the IB exam in art history on April 29th were able to see for themselves what Leonardo meant by "the motions of the soul."
- Mark Aeschliman, TASIS Faculty

An Unexpected Academic Travel Trip

March 9, 2016

Filipe Malczewski ’16 is currently an AP photography student and recently returned from his Italian Homestay in Sicily. Many TASIS modern language students participate in homestays during an Academic Travel week to experience full immersion into French, Italian, or Spanish. All photography students are encouraged to take photographs wherever they are in the world. Upon his return Filipe said this was his best Academic Travel trip in his three years at TASIS. In addition to helping his Italian, his experience provided him with inspiration and photographs for his AP portfolio. Here is his story:

I was scared and nervous, at first! Two other TASIS students were also staying at the home of Goffredo Adragna, one student from Russia and the other from Brazil. So, we had three different cultures sitting at the table together, and I wondered, how are we going to get along? But I immediately had a great feeling in their home; I was hopeful! When I first arrived I noticed they had a lot of artwork and the colors of the walls were a rich deep blue. I noticed a Caravaggio painting on the wall. I think it was real, but he said it was a copy. The photographer in me loved the light!

The home we were staying in was actually a working bed-and-breakfast which our hosts own and operate. We were the first student group and homestay that they had ever hosted. For most of Goffredo's life he owned and operated a winery. I realized fairly quickly that he loved art, and so I would ask him about the many paintings he had in his home. One day he even showed us a precious book from the late 18th/early 19th century. We learned a lot about Sicily from them. We talked about life in Sicily, the traditions, and culture. Goffredo's wife was a good cook, especially of traditional Sicilian food – we had fish, meat, and lots of desserts made with ricotta cheese.

The light in their home was amazing, it was soft and indirect; I knew I had to photograph the rooms and also these people. The living room was a deep rich blue, and I knew right from the first night that I wanted to try and shoot their portraits in this room, but it would all depend on the relationship with the family. I needed to make a connection, so I did not bring out my camera at first, but after a day or so I asked if I could take some photos. They thought I was only going to photograph the house, but I desperately wanted to shoot their portraits, too. Goffredo did not like me taking his photograph initially, but I simply kept shooting.

I am very happy with many of the photographs I took during the week in Trapani. My AP Photography requirements include a breadth (12 images showing an in-depth understanding of and engagement with photography in their concept, composition, and execution) and a concentration (12 images demonstrating a sustained and thoughtful investigation of a visual idea). My concentration is informal portraiture of people with whom I have made a strong connection. These include my mother, my sister, my grandmother, friends, even a homeless man in Venice; I took his photograph only after I talked with him and gave him a bit of money, and made a connection. On this trip, I knew my hosts would make great subjects for my AP portfolio, but only if I made a connection, and happily I did.

Click on the photos below to see them in slideshow mode.

l'Italia Exhibition Features Venice Film

February 23, 2016

While on Academic Travel this past October, sophomore Tyler Miller filmed this breathtaking footage of Venice. This video along with a series of black and white photographs by faculty member James Shields are being shown in the Horst Dürrschmidt gallery in the Ferit Şahenk Fine Arts Center as part of the current exhibition.

TASIS Students Work with Master Printer

February 18, 2016

Students have spent the week working with master printer Maureen Booth in her traditional printing studio. Using light sensitive solar plates, the students have been able to convert their original artwork and photographs into printing plates, both negative relief prints and, with the use of an aquatint screen, positive intaglio printing plates. The group traveled to the famous Alhambra palace and fortress early in the week to gather inspiration from the Moorish architecture and design work, and then, returned to the studio to create graphic pieces, while others have been adapting artwork they brought from school. Maureen worked with everyone to give the chance to make several prints from the various plates, including monochromatic, multiple color ink and prints with overlay of handmade colored paper. The results are varied, but exciting. More photographs from the week in Spain can be viewed on Maureen's website.

Students have spent the week working with master printer Maureen Booth in her traditional printing studio in southern Spain. Using light sensitive solar plates, the students have been able to convert their original artwork and photographs into printing plates, both negative relief prints and, with the use of an aquatint screen, positive intaglio printing plates.